Magnetically operative selective card distributing device



April 9, 1968 LE ROI NOTTOLI 3,377,069

MAGNETICALLY OPERATIVE SELECTIVE CARD DISTRIBUTING DEVICE Filed Nov. 16, 1964 i! "in m" 80 7o FflG. 7

D W/ 54 l 5 z? m4 2 x c, 6| if g x i 8 8 I INVENTOR I F G LERol NOTTOLI V 74 I BY Q -6 l2 0 68 74 "Lame 72 H r:2(((((((( E AT TORNEY United States Patent ()fifice 3,377,069 MAGNETICALLY OPERATIVE SELECTIVE CARD DISTRIBUTING DEVICE Le Roi Nottoli, New York, N.Y., assignor to Robert Hallowell III, Redford, N.Y. Filed Nov. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 411,256 13 Claims. (Cl. 273-149) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A card dealing device operable in conjunction with a deck of special playing cards, or other data containing cards, having magnetically responsive inserts disposed at selected locations about the peripheries thereof. The deck of cards is placed in the center of the device whereat it is completely confined and contacted by four outwardly movable panels and aligned into a neat pile. An inisotropic magnet is arranged in each panel at a selected position along the periphery of the panels whereby upon outward movement of the panels preselected cards are pulled simultaneously outwardly in four different directions.

The present invention relates to card dealing devices and more particularly to a type adopted to separate and distribute a plurality of preselected hands of playing cards from a special deck, simultaneously in different directions.

However the utility of the invention is not necessarily limited to use in conjunction with playing cards, although applications of it will be great in that field. It will be evident that the invention may be advantageously practiced .in any situation where it is desired to separate and distribute certain preselected cards (not necessarily playing cards) simultaneously in four different directions, provided the cards are prepared with certain magnetic responsive inserts as hereinafter described.

The invention has particular utility in teaching various card games, wherein the instructor desires to deal each pupil certain specific playing cards during the course of a lesson to better illustrate the accompanying verbal ex planations. The herein disclosed device is capable of selectively dealing one single card or a greater number according to the teaching requirements.

Heretofore in the art various types of card selecting or card separating devices have been employed. But generally these have related to improvements in filing systems and the novelty, if any, resided in the ability of the apparatus to select certain record cards from a large number of cards filed in a container or cabinet. Other prior art devices deal with improvements in the actual filing and physical arrangement of record cards to facilitate ofiice procedures.

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to provide a novel card dealing device capable of dealing a preselected desired hand to each of four players.

A further object is to provide a card dealing device of the above indicated nature which will automatically align the deck placed therein.

Still another object of the invention is to provide apparatus of the above indicated nature employing magnetic means to selectively separate and deal playing hands from the deck.

Another object of the invention is to provide novel apparatus of the above indicated nature which shall be relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture, yet positive and reliable in use.

Further objects and advantages and features will appear more fully hereinafter from a consideration of the detailed description which follows, taken together with 3,377,069 Patented Apr. 9, 1968 the accompanying drawing wherein one embodiment of the invent-ion is illustrated by way of example. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawing is for the purposes of illustration only, and is not to be construed as defining the limits of the invention, reference being had for this purpose to the appended claims.

In the drawing wherein like reference characters indicate like parts:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the complete card separator assembly, including the arrangement of slots and magnets therein.

FIG. 2 isan isometric view showing the moving mechanism of the device.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of a card carrying tray comprising an element of the card separator.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an anisotropic magnet adapted to mate into the slots shown in FIGS. 1 and 4.

FIG. 6 is a section view taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 5 looking in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the back of a special playing card employed in conjunction with the card separator.

FIG. 8 is a section view taken along the line 8-8 of FIG. 7 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawing and more particularly to FIG. 1 there is shown a selective card separator and distributor generally designated by the numeral 10 comprising a substantially hollow cruciform base 12, defined by platforms or arms 14, 16, 18 and 20 forming the four arms of the cruciform base 12. Thus the platforms '14 and 16 are collinear and at substantially right angle to like collinear platforms 18 and 20. Each of the platforms or arms 14, 16, r18 and 20 contain therein, through slots 22, 24, 26 and 28 respectively of specified lengths as later explained, and within each slot rides a tray carrier designated in FIGS. 1 and 2, as 30, 32, 34 and 36. The carriers 30, 32' 34 and 36 bear card trays 38, 40, 42 and 44 respectively attached thereto in any approved manner such as through mounting holes 46 (FIGS. 2 and 4). Thus the card trays 38, 40, 42 and 44 ride outwardly and inwardly above the base 12 for the length of the slots 14, 16, 18 and 20 .and it will be noted that at the most inward position of the trays, a rectangular enclosure 48 is formed and defined (FIG. 1) by four vertical walls 50, 52, 54 and 56 forming the back of the trays 38, 40, 42 and 44 respectively. The enclosure 48 is the exact size as and adapted to contain one or more special playing cards 57 (FIGS. 7 and 8) or other cards of like size, not shown here, and since the height [1 (-FIG. 4) of the walls 50, 52, 54 and 56 is the same or slightly greater than the thickness of an entire deck 58 (not shown here) of special cards 57, it will be readily evident that when such a deck 58 is placed within the enclosure 48, and the card trays 40, 42, '44 and 46 are slightly outward, upon moving the trays to their innermost position so that edges 59, 61 (FIGS. 1 and 4) thereof meet a crossrib 55, on the base 12, the deck 58 will find itself automatically and neatly stacked and aligned.

Referring now to FIGURE 4, it will be noted that the vertical wall 54 contains therein a plurality of identical slots 60 extending vertically the entire height it thereof, spaced and positioned approximately equidistantly along the wall; eight such slots being shown here by way of example. Each slot 60 is adapted by contour to snugly receive an anisotropic magnet 62 therein as shown in FIG. 1. The anisotropic magnets 62 (FIGS. 5 and 6) as is well known in the art possess a powerful polarity concentrated along a relatively narrow face thereof, such as at 6'4, and in the installed position within any selected slot, the face 64 faces inwardly towards the enclosure 48.

Special playing cards Referring now to FIGS. 7 and 8 wherein details of the special playing card 57 are disclosed, it will be seen that the four edges 66, 68, 70 and 72 thereof contain a plu-- rality of metal inserts 74 attached thereto in any manner known in the art, such as by crimping, or insertion between laminations of the cards.

The metal inserts 74 are spaced and positioned along the edges 66, 68, 70 and 72 of the playing cards 57 which form the special deck 58, in such a manner that the position of the inserts wherever they are present in any given card, can only be identical and opposite to the spacing and positioning of the vertical slots 60 in their respective walls 50, 52, 54 and 56. More simply stated, the various cards 57 of which the deck 58 is composed, each contain one or more metal inserts 74 along their four edges. The number of inserts and their positioning on any given card is dependent upon the particular playing combination or pre-arranged hand to which the card is assigned, and forms part of a carefully pre-conceived pattern not part of this invention. However, the inserts 74 will always be made to fall exactly opposite a vertical slot 60, so that when an anisotropic magnet 62 is placed within a slot, and the card trays 40, 42, 44 and 46 are in their inwardmost position (so that edges 59 and 61 meet the cross-rib 55) and the deck 58 is neatly stacked and aligned within the enclosure 48, all of the inserts opposite the particular magnet-bearing slot will be in contact with face 64 of the magnet and attracted thereto. The same situation will prevail for each of the four edges 66, 68, 70 and 72 of the cards 57.

If cards other than playing cards are being employed in conjunction with the separator 10, as heretofore stated, the metal inserts 74 will be positioned in the cards in like manner, so as to always fall directly facing a slot 60 when the pile of cards is neatly stacked and aligned.

The playing cards 57 have, in addition to the inserts 74 therein, an identifying design on the back. For example the card 57 (FIG. 7) has a back divided into 16 rectangles. Each rectangle is one of four different colors, as for example, white, red, green and brown. Each rectangle has a numeral imprinted thereon ranging from 1 to 13, since there are 13 cards to each of the four conventional suits. The corresponding rectangles on each of the cards 57 is the same color although the numeral thereon may be different. For example, the cards 57 (FIG. 7) shows the upper left hand rectangle to be white, and bearing the numeral l. Thus, on all the cards of the deck 58, the upper left hand rectangle is white, but the numerals thereon will range from 1 to 13 for each of the four suits. These numerals indicate the correct order of play of each bridge :hand dealt out by the distributor 10. In this manner, by following the proper number in any given rectangle of the same color and in the same position on each card, the cards will be played in the correct predetermined order according to the instruction technique. It is also possible for a student player, after he has selected and played a card to turn it over and observe whether he has made the correct selection according to the standards of the instructor. It will be noted that the number of hands possible to play in predetermined order may be increased by employing 32 rectangles on the back of the cards, each rectangle bearing a numeral assigned to a specific card, ranging from 1 to 13.

Moving mechanism occur to those skilled in these matters (not shown here), that permits the shaft to rotate freely in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A removable bottom plate provides servicing access to the mechanism 76. Attached to the shaft 78 and concentrically integral therewith are a pair of identical ratchet wheels 82 and 84, designated as upper ratchet wheel and lower ratchet wheel respectively, having teeth 86 about the external periphery thereof. The tray carriers heretofore mentioned, 30, 32, 34 and 36 are integral with and embody gear rods 88, 90, 92 and 94, respectively, having gear teeth 96 adapted to mate with the teeth 86 on the ratchet wheels, and are snugly mated therewith by the snug position of the tray carriers within their respective slots 22, 24, 26 and 28, so that the gear rods 88 and 90 mate with diametrically opposite sides of lower ratchet wheel 84 and travel parallel to one another, while the rods 92 and 94 mate at diametrically opposite points with upper ratchet wheel 82 and travel in like manner.

Thus it will be evident that any reciprocating linear motion imparted to any one of the gear rods 88, 90, 92 and 94 will be translated into rotary motion of the ratchet wheels 82 and 84 and thereby retranslated into like reciprocating linear motion in the remaining three gear rods. Thus the tray carriers and their respective trays, 38, 40, 42 and 44 will all move simultaneously a like amount either inward towards the center, or outward along the arms of the cruciform base 12.

Operation Having thus described the invention, it will now be apparent to those versed in the art that in operation of the novel distributor 10, when a deck 58 consisting of the special cards 57 is placed within the enclosure 48, or any other cards of like size having metal inserts 74 therein, any movement inward of the card trays 30, 32, 34 and 36 will automatically stack and align the deck. At this point an anisotropic magnet 62 is placed in one slot 60 in each of the vertical walls 56, 50, 52 and 54.

The anisotropic magnets 62 extend slightly above the vertical walls to provide easy gripping thereof between the fingers and facilitate transfer of the magnets between the various slots. The slots selected for placing the magnets are those wherein the faces 64 of the magnets will be aligned with and contacting the metal inserts 74 disposed along the edges of certain cards 57, preselected to form a playing hand. Upon manually moving any card tray along its slot outward towards the arms of the cruciform base 12, all of the card trays will move outward simultaneously a like amount and carry along with them four chosen playing hands attached to the four anisotropic magnets 62. As an illustration, if it is desired to deal North (designated by N, FIG. 1) the ace of clubs, the anisotropic magnet 62 in the vertical wall 54 will be placed in that particular slot 60 wherein it will contact a correspondingly positioned metal insert 74 on the North edge of the ace of clubs. Hence the ace of clubs will be pulled out when the card tray 42 is pulled outward. Simultaneously other preselected cards, all having metal inserts in vertical line with said insert on the ace of clubs will be extracted and distributed to the same player. The particular playing hands that will result from placing a magnet in any given slot 60 are known to the instructor and selected accordingly. Stops, to prevent overriding, are provided by the particular length of each slot 22, 24, 26 and 28 and a conventional snapcatch (not shown here) serves to maintain the tray carriers in contact with the crossr-ib 55, in the inwardmost position of the carriers.

While the invention has been illustrated and described with respect to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that it is intended to cover all such changes and modifications which do not constitute departures from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A card separating device comprising, a base, a plurality of card carrying trays movable on said base, a plurality of cards embodying metal inserts selectively disposed about the peripheries thereof and enclosed by said trays, and magnetic means secured to said trays adapted to be moved into operative relationship with preselected ones of said inserts to selectively extract certain of said cards in one or more directions.

2. A card separating device comprising, a base, a plurality of card carrying trays movable on said base and defining an enclosure adapted to receive a deck of playing cards embodying metal inserts selectively disposed about the peripheries thereof, a magnet selectively placed in each of said trays in operative relationship with preselected ones of said inserts to attract certain cards from the deck, said trays being movable outwardly to extract certain cards from the deck simultaneously in diiferent directions.

3. The card separating device claimed in claim 2 Wherein said enclosure is rectangular and the cards extracted are moved simultaneously outward in a cruciform pattern.

'4. A card separating and hand dealing device comprising four arms disposed in cruciform fashion, a linear slot within each arm and a card carrying tray disposed to move inwardly and outwardly therein, an enclosure defined by said trays adapted to receive a deck of cards having inserts selectively disposed along the edges responsive to magnetic attraction, said trays being adapted upon inward movement thereof to stack and align the deck, an anisotropic magnet selectively placed in each tray along the edge of the cards and so disposed as to be in operative relationship with preselected ones of said inserts, said trays being movable outwardly along said slots to extract four hands of cards from the deck by the attraction of the anisotropic magnets for said inserts and distribute said hands simultaneously in four different directions.

5. The card separating and hand dealing device claimed in claim 4, wherein said card carrying trays each include a vertical wall containing a plurality of vertical slots therein for selectively placing the anisotropic magnet within one of said slots in each Wall.

6. In combination with a card separating device having a base and a plurality of card carrying trays movable on said base and magnetic means secured to said trays, a plurality of cards, and a plurality of metallic inserts selectively attached to the edges of each of said cards so disposed as to be attracted by selected ones of said magnetic means to attach preselected cards to the respective trays.

7. In combination with a card separating device having a base and a plurality of card carrying trays movable on said base and magnetic means secured to said trays, a plurality of playing cards, each card having sequential playing indicia on the back thereof, a plurality of metallic inserts selectively attached to the edges of each of said cards so disposed as to be attracted by selected ones of said magnetic means to attach preselected cards to the respective movable trays.

8. In a card selecting and extracting device, the combination comprising, a base including four arms disposed in cruciform fashion, a slot in each arm and a tray carrier reciprocably movable within each slot and a card carrying tray mounted on each carrier, a vertical wall on each tray including a plurality of vertical slots therein, an anisotropic magnet removably mounted in a slot in each vertical wall, said walls defining a rectangular enclosure 'at the innermost position within the slots of the carriers, adapted to contain and align a plurality of playing cards having a number of metallic inserts along the edges thereof positioned opposite the vertical slots, said magnet being adapted to be selectively positioned in the vertical slots in each respective wall opposite a preselected number of said inserts to extract the playing cards bearing the preselected inserts upon the outward movement of the carriers within the slots.

9. A playing card dealing device for a deck of cards having magnetically responsive inserts selectively disposed about the edges, adapted to simultaneously deal four hands of playing cards from the deck in difierent directions, comprising, a base including four arms arranged in cruciform fashion, a card carrying tray movable along each arm, a vertical wall on each tray adapted to form an enclosure for the deck, a magnet mounted on each wall opposite a preselected number of inserts disposed on a preselected number of cards aligned therewith, said magnets being adapted to attract the inserts to secure the cards to the vertical walls, said walls being adapted to move outward along the arms to thereby extract four separate hands simultaneously from the deck.

10. A playing card dealing device according to claim 9 wherein, the magnet mounted on each wall is anisotropic, and mounted such that the strongest face thereof is opposite 'the inserts aligned therewith.

11. The card dealing device claimed in claim 9 wherein the cards dealt thereby contain the back surfaces divided into a multiplicity of colored rectangles, each rectangle bearing indicia according to color and number to indicate the correct sequence of playing the cards.

12. A playing card dealing device as claimed in claim 9 wherein the inserts on the playing cards are disposed in vertical rows 13. A playing card dealing device as claimed in claim 12 wherein, the magnets are removably mounted in vertical slots on each wall and a slot is disposed opposite each vertical row of inserts on the playing card-s.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,051,615 8/1936 Miles 273-149 2,269,767 1/1942 Jayne 129-161 2,577,460 12/1951 Gottschalk 12916.1 2,638,098 5/1953 Toepper 129-16.1 3,073,313 1/1963 Mittag 129-16.1

FOREIGN PATENTS 919,318 11/1946 France. 1,139,098 11/1962 Germany. 46,520 2/ 1963 Poland.

ANTON O. OECHSLE, Primary Examiner. 

